Cine Film Basics

Cine Film Projector

By Cine Film we normally mean the popular (Standard) 8 mm and Super 8 and less frequently seen 9.5 mm and 16 mm, motion picture film formats used for home movies. I will concentrate on the more popular 8 mm sizes as that is what we see the most of when transferring them to DVD. The film is called 8 mm as it is (approximately) eight millimetres wide. It exists in two main versions — the original standard 8 mm film (also known as standard or regular 8), and Super 8. Although both standard 8 mm and Super 8 are 8 mm wide, Super 8 has a larger image area because of its smaller and more widely spaced perforations (see diagram).

8 mm and Super 8 Comparison

Both are easily transferred to DVD using a frame by frame process that individually scans each frame and then assembles them as an MP4 format film available to play immediately. However, we use a film editing programme to check the scanned film and where necessary correct any colour cast – this is a tint of a particular colour, usually unwanted, which affects the whole, or portion, of a photographic image evenly. It can be caused by the chemical process in development and the fading of pictures over time or exposure to UV light or other extremes – temperature for example – often Cine film ends up in the loft or attic and is subjected to extremes which is why getting it transferred as soon as possible is a must.

Using video editing software allows us to review and correct the speed of the Cine Film. The frame rate can be anywhere between 18 and 24 frames per second. Our scanner produces an MP4 file at 30 frames per second (fps). We, therefore, need to adjust this to make the film playback normally and not as if playing at double speed which it can sometimes look like. Here is a link to our Cine Film Transfer Page.

Example of a photo with a uniformly green colour cast due to differential absorption of light before reaching certain depths at sea.

The same photo with the colour cast corrected

Reasons to transfer from Cine to DVD

The enjoyment of rediscovery – precious memories that have been lost for many years. Transferring Cine Film to DVD can lead to the unearthing of long-forgotten Weddings, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Christenings, Holidays and major events.

Easy viewing – to view a Cine Film can be complex and time-consuming, even if you have working equipment it has to be assembled and set up and the room darkened. Often the equipment doesn’t work that well, and servicing old projectors can be costly and time-consuming. Getting the framing right and not scorching the film are all big problems. With DVD footage, on the other hand, it is easier to watch, pause and replay, and to enjoy at leisure.

Degradation risk – Cine Film, degrades, discolours and gets hard and rigid and unable to be played at all. Surprisingly, Cine Film lasts longer than video film but still fails over time. This is partly a result of its chemical composition but also due to the effects of time and any damage incurred by original viewings can lead to the film quality degrading.

Now is the time to act as Cine Film use started to decline in the 1970s and so many films we see are getting on for 50 years old or more. Our Cine Film Transfer Service Page gives prices for transferring from Cine to DVD.

Approximate Guide to how much Cine Film you have

A shoebox of Cine Films stored in your cupboard or attic/loft may well contain 10 or more reels of film but just how much is on a reel? The table below gives you a rough idea of how much film is on a reel:

Cine Film Running Time Table

Do Not Put Off Getting Your Films Transferred

We see a lot of films where the splices (connecting one scene to another in a film) have broken requiring us to reconnect these to get the film to transfer. The colour cast problems mentioned earlier will not correct themselves and whilst we have tools to correct this, the earlier the film can be transferred, the better. Films fade and details and resolution are lost as the pictures fade away. We have seen a number of films now beginning to show signs of chemical decomposition, these present themselves as a sticky film (stuck together and totally destroyed). As a white musty dust along the edges of the film which we have been able to work with but is an obvious sign that the film is breaking down. Additionally, we have seen film that has hardened which is very difficult to work with as it can easily snap and break.

With most film over 50 years old and not having been stored in the optimum of conditions, now is the time to hunt out those boxes of film and get them transferred. You never know what treasured memories you will unearth and you can save them before they have gone forever. Our Cine Film Transfer Services Page shows our prices.

When did this journey begin?

The start of the journey

As an old colleague of mine recounted being pulled over at the side of the road by the Police for a traffic census some years ago (you don’t see the census points these days). The Officer asked “Where did this journey begin?” my colleague answered, “West Ham Maternity Hosptial!” apparently the Policeman did not have a great sense of humour!

Someone asked me how we got started on this journey ending up in the scanning business? Considering I was originally an Electrical Engineer, it’s a strange journey. I was in at the very beginning of the computer age and feel lucky that I grew up with technology from the earliest days when the computers I worked on were programmable controllers. As I started on that part of my career I met a lady who was researching the family name and I got involved in genealogical research way back in the day before there were any personal computers, the internet was 10 – 15 years away then and we used to go to records offices to undertake family history. The nearest thing we had to a scanner was a photocopier. The paperwork involved filled a substantial chest and the card records were a major undertaking until I was able to transfer most of it to a database.

Perhaps 15 years ago I was beginning to use scanners to digitise family documents and photographs but found that the scanners were small and anything above A4 was difficult to work on. I purchased a larger scanner and was able to offer my services to digitise family history documents to start with. As time moved on, the need to document more things such as photographs and photo albums started to gain importance. The business grew up from humble beginnings scanning family history documents to the business as it is today. It is worrying how quickly photographs fade and how fragile they are and scanning them makes sense to protect them from further degradation and in the worse case complete destruction. We had to scan a number of pictures that had been left in a shoe box and some mice had got in. The damage was major and many pictures were totally destroyed, gnawed into tiny fragments. We rescued the remainder and saved them from further damage.

About 5 years ago we made a major investment in production computers, a website, scanners, printers and audio, video and cine transfer equipment so that we could have a professional setup and to retire some of the equipment that had passed their “sell by” date. Growing out of a family history background where over 40 years had been spent identifying circa 3,900 members of the wider family and documenting them back to the 16th Century provided for the experience to run the genealogy side of the business which is a small percentage of the day to day work. We’ve been involved in some really interesting work including War Diary research. The majority of our work is scanning and cine and video transfer. We get some audio work and this year had the great delight in transferring an audio history where the narrator had been involved in WW2 and escaped to the UK.

This is a most enjoyable business to be in as by its very nature you are helping to preserve things for people. Old tapes (both audio and visual), cine films, photographs, negatives, photo albums and all manner of memorabilia – we scan artworks, certificates, handwritten documents and many other things apart from photographic items. It is lovely to see the reaction when old photographs are enhanced and repaired.

I was asked the other day what is the strangest thing to have happened or what’s the strangest or most unusual thing you’ve seen when working on scanning or transferring?

Well, quite a lot happens when you are working from strange coincidences to identifying with the subject matter (say a family Christmas on a cine film) or just what you discover as you proceed with the work.

There have been so many that I thought I would document these occasionally and the first one is probably one of the most unusual.

What are the chances of receiving a Cine film for transfer and as you are editing the final film, prior to placing on chapters and burning it to DVD, than to notice that the scene is of the Orpington Carnival, obviously in the 1970s from the fashion and the camera is pointed towards the old Tesco supermarket where I used to work part-time when I was at school! Better than that I suddenly recognised that the Rotaract (Junior Rotary) Carnival Float was coming into view. Then I saw a teenage me, with my girlfriend sitting on the lorry waving to the crowd. What are the chances of that I wonder?

We were once again delighted to be able to support Local & Live 2018 at Calverley Park Tunbridge Wells over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Our video was playing on Saturday and Sunday whilst hundreds of acts played across the main stage and satellite venues around Tunbridge Wells. It’s a pleasure to support Paul Dunton and everyone who works so hard at Local & Live.

I’ve just had the pleasure of delivering a number of transferred VHS videos to a customer. What was nice was to hear that the only moving pictures of his late sister were on one of the videos we transferred and he would now, once again, be able to see her. A while back we were delivering a project where we had transferred some old cine film to DVD. We sat through the “première” and suddenly our customer said that there were pictures of his dad, young and thin as he remembered him. He hadn’t seen the film for perhaps 40 or more years.

It really makes our work turn from “just work” to being a privilege when you can bring back these memories to share again from old cine films, videos or still photographs.

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